Pallin retires from snocross racing

By JASON JUNO

sports@yourdailyglobe.com

Ironwood - Kyle Pallin laughs when he thinks about it. Ten years ago, when he was just starting his professional career, the sport of snocross with all its twists and turns and high-flying jumps, was literally life.

"When I was 21, I thought racing was my entire life and I'd just race forever," Pallin said.

He went on to win two professional races, get to the podium with a top-three finish 34 times and become a fan favorite on the pro circuit across the Midwest and Northeast.

But forever it wasn't. 

The Ironwood resident announced his retirement from the sport recently, instead taking an opportunity to coach Team LaVallee's other drivers on the circuit starting this upcoming season.

"Now I'm 31," Pallin said. "And I guess I think more and more I'd like to hopefully be healthy for quite a while longer."

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Pallin has been racing sleds at one level or another for 19 years. His older brother Josh was interested first. He was the one reading the snowmobile magazines, going out to North Ironwood and riding with his friends. He went to a couple of races, got interested in the sport, and before long, their parents got him a race-specific machine.

After watching him race a few times, Kyle wanted to try it. 

"In the early years, as the years went on, I always had him to learn from, because he was always better than me for a long time, so I always had him to chase and to learn from and really help me develop my base, my foundation," Pallin said. "Without him, I don't think I would have ever gotten to where I did with racing."

Kyle had already liked doing much the same thing on his dirt bike, namely the jumps and the speed while going up against his friends on the course.

"Once I got on the sled, all that transferred over, the jumps and the battling with your buddies out there as I got to know some of these kids that were racing that were my age," he said. "It was just a rush being out there on a sled."

In 2009, he finished in fourth place in snocross at the X Games. 

"That was definitely a special moment," Pallin said. "There were a bunch of family and friends who came out to Colorado and supported me."

In 2010, at the age of 20, he was on the pro circuit.

He joined his current team, Team LaVallee, the next year. The year after that, he made a pro podium for the first time, and he made it six times overall that season.

In 2013, Pallin secured a top-five finish at a professional snocross race held at Blackjack.

"If it weren't for my parents and for a lot of other locals who put in a lot of time and a lot of money to get those to come, I don't know if we would have ever had them," Pallin said. "But boy, yeah, nothing sure beats a professional, a national race right in your backyard, where everybody comes out."

He told his team owner Levi that he loved racing at Blackjack. 

"And he said, 'Well yeah, it's basically the Kyle Pallin National, who wouldn't love racing in their hometown,'" Pallin said. 

He got his first pro win in 2015 in Shakopee, Minnesota. That and his first semi-pro win before that, were highlights for him.

"The first ones are always the hardest because you're not sure if you can do it or not," he said. "There's always that little part of you, "Do I have what it takes?'"

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Pallin was voted the series' fan favorite four times. He earned the nickname Senor Smiley - from a broadcast announcer - for his infectious personality, and of course, ever-present smile on the circuit. In fact, he was rarely called Kyle at the races, it was always Senor Smiley.

While professional athletes can be jerks, Pallin certainly isn't. 

"I was really honored," he said. "I really was. I didn't really I guess ever see myself becoming a fan favorite. Especially the first time it happened because at that time there was still some of the older professionals that are retired now. They had been in the sport for so many years and they had such a following of people and fans. I just thought, 'How am I ever going to be fan favorite against those guys?' That first time it happened I was kind of in shock.

"That's been one of my favorite parts when I'm off the track is just connecting with people and chatting with them and hearing their stories. ... It's pretty dang cool that they felt a connection as well and wanted to follow me because of that."

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Amazingly, Pallin didn't suffer the kinds of injuries you'd expect to see in such an extreme sport, but he did have several concussions.

"I was really lucky to have a pretty darn healthy career," he said. "I was pretty lucky as far as breaking bones and tearing ligaments and stuff like that goes, but somehow I managed to find a way to hit my head five, six, seven times during the course of my career. Those were never very fun. But I was pretty fortunate overall that I didn't have any major accidents like that."

He doesn't have any lasting effects from the concussions, at least he hopes it stays that way.

"I've always tried to go and see the right people after something like that happens," Pallin said. "I've been to a couple specialists down in the Twin Cities before to get evaluated and make sure my brain is still functioning as it should, and knock on wood, we haven't ever came across anything that worried us."

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Pallin expects to be able to spend more time at home this winter without having to get ready to race. He'll still be at all the race weekends as a coach along with some practice sessions. 

"And I keep joking, I'm telling everybody, for me, I said the practice sessions where I ride with my teammates, those are going to be my races now so it matters to me now," Pallin said. 

Team LaVallee never had the coaching role before. Pallin joined that group back when their owner was looking to get out of racing himself.

"I've always enjoyed, especially with younger kids, just trying to pass on knowledge that I've acquired from racing from I think it was 19 years," he said. "I got a lot of help in my first couple seasons of my professional career from my team owner Levi LaVallee, he was my mentor for those couple seasons. Some of those lessons that I could have either learned the hard way through my own experience or learn from him, who had already been racing professionally for many years, really, really saved me I guess a lot of time and energy trying to learn it the hard way. 

"It's fun to be able to pass that on to other racers as well and to see it make a difference in their performance and results. And for me, I guess that's just a really rewarding feeling."

He expressed his appreciation to all the people and businesses that helped him along the way, especially locally where he's excited to have a little more time during the winter.

"Home is home and I like it here and I like how much snow we always get," Pallin said. "I'm looking forward to doing a little more playing here on my snowmobile and doing some cross country skiing, too."

What a change of pace that will be.